Statutory bills or conditional fee agreements?

Bidzina Ivanishvili has been suing Credit Suisse in several jurisdictions for alleged mismanagement of his assets. Law firm Signature Litigation was instructed to act as global coordinating counsel of the litigation.

All 79 invoices rendered by the firm, totalling nearly £13m, have been paid. The case, Signature Litigation v Bidzina Ivanishvili [2024] EWCA Civ 901, turned on whether those invoices were ‘interim statutory bills’, as defined by s 70 of the Solicitors Act 1974. If so, time limits applied and the bill could not be assessed.

The invoices were for 65% of the standard fee, with the remaining 35% together with an uplift fee and success fee only due if certain contingencies were achieved. These were held not to be ‘interim statutory bills’.

Lord Justice Coulson said: ‘Solicitors sensibly seek interim payments, but they still want the protection of s 70, even under CFAs [conditional fee agreements]. As the authorities demonstrate, they make uneasy bedfellows.’